Egypt: Knife attack kills Christian woman in southern Egypt
An Egyptian pharmacist has been arrested in connection with the stabbing death of a Christian woman earlier this month.
In a country where anti-Christian violence is a daily occurrence, the death of Madeleine Wagih on Feb. 8 was not widely reported. It received brief mention in one of the more lurid corners of Egyptian online news. It was one act of violence among the many that have followed the military's removal of former President Mohamed Morsi last summer.
Since August's deadly clashes between pro-Morsi demonstrators and army, scores of churches have been ransacked. Kidnappings have become epidemic; Christian doctors and pharmacists are favoured targets. Christians generally are seen as having access to money, and for being supporters of the military takeover that drove the Muslim Brotherhood underground. Though the military-run interim government has outlawed the Brotherhood and rounded up its leaders, Egypt's Christian leaders complain security forces do not show the same determination to track down the arsonists, kidnappers and killers who have lashed out at Christians and their churches.
Anti-Christian Hostility Motivated Lethal Attack on Copts, Sources in Egypt Say
Stories of Muslim's mental instability, circumstances fabricated to build his murder defense, rights advocate says.
By Our Middle East Correspondent CAIRO, Egypt, February 17, 2014 (Morning Star News) – More than a week after a Muslim went on an anti-Christian rampage in Upper Egypt that left one woman dead and another wounded, many area Coptic women are still too afraid to leave their homes, residents said.
In Kom Ombo, 48 kilometers (30 miles) north of Aswan, the Muslim on Feb. 8 attacked several Christians, including employees of two Coptic-owned pharmacies and two students who were walking nearby. Although the alleged assailant has been arrested, residents fear there could be others whose sole motivation for attacking was hostility toward Christians.
Boko Haram Islamists Massacre Christian Villagers in Borno State, Nigeria
Islamic extremists shoot some, slit throats of others.
By Our Nigeria Correspondent
JOS, Nigeria, February 17, 2014 (Morning Star News) – A large contingent of Islamic extremist rebels from Boko Haram invaded a predominantly Christian village in northeastern Nigeria Saturday night (Feb. 15) and slaughtered at least 106 people, sources said.
Dressed in military fatigues, the Boko Haram rebels, who seek to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, reportedly shot some people and slit the throats of others while shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater]” in Izghe village of the Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno state. They also destroyed homes and shops.
Four people including three believed to be South Korean Christian pilgrims were killed on Sunday by a bomb that tore through their bus near Egypt's border with Israel in the Sinai peninsula.
The bus was heading to the Taba border crossing after taking the pilgrims to visit St Catherine's Monastery, at the foot of Mount Sinai, when its front half was engulfed in an explosion.
Mombasa, Kenya: The Government Thursday launched a crackdown on shops in Mombasa, seizing material containing preaching by radical Muslim priests from Kenya and Tanzania.
Officials confiscated DVDs containing radical Islamic teachings of slain Muslim cleric Sheikh Aboud Rogo and other Tanzanian ‘hate’ preachers, amid reports of resistance from some traders in Mwembe Tayari and Majengo, where Rogo had strong support.
Defendant in Bulgaria's 'Imam' Trial Stirs Outrage
Ahmed Mussa Ahmed is one of the defendants in the radical Islam trial in Bulgaria, photo by BGNES
The Thursday session in Bulgaria's notorious radical Islam and religious hatred case started out scandalously over the attitude of one of the defendants.
Ahmed Mussa Ahmed refused to stand up when the presiding judge was entering the courtroom. He stated from his seat that he was a Muslim and shows respect only for Allah.
Two policeman killed on Tuesday as Mursi appears in court
Firefighters accompany the coffin of General Mohamed Saeed, head of the technical office of the minister of interior, during his funeral service in Cairo January 28, 2014. (Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—Egyptian Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Hani Abdullatif warned against an escalation in terrorist activity in Egypt on Tuesday following the killing of two Egyptian security officers.
“We are monitoring the escalation on the part of terrorist activities in Egypt, particularly assassinations and targeting of state infrastructure,” he said in exclusive comments to Asharq Al-Awsat. He added that the Egyptian authorities were confronting any terrorist attempts with violence.
Profile: Egypt's militant Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis said it bombed the police headquarters in Cairo
Al-Qaeda-inspired militant organisation Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Champions of Jerusalem) has claimed responsibility for the 24 January bomb attack on the police headquarters in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
Initially, the group was known for launching attacks on Israeli targets and interests, but after the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, it has started directing its violence against the Egyptian army and police.
Egypt’s military plans to protect January 25 street celebrations under threat of attack
At least three hundred members from the Muslim Brotherhood have been intensively trained during the past days in an area of Egypt known as New Valley.
By Ashraf Ramlah
Egyptians brace for more Muslim Brotherhood attacks. These strikes are anticipated to occur during the scheduled January 25 pro-democracy celebrations on the three-year anniversary of the uprising of Egypt’s freedom fighters.
Muslim Brotherhood documents show more attacks planned for Egypt
Egyptian newspapers report that Egypt’s military have recently discovered three documents in the city of Beni Suef, just south of Cairo, produced by the Muslim Brotherhood containing plans to provoke chaos during Egypt’s upcoming street festivities.
Syria: Canadian fighter's death underscores security challenges
Damian Clairmont was killed in infighting between groups opposed to Bashar Assad’s regime. His death shows how complex the battleground has become.
BARAA AL-HALABI / AFP/GETTY IMAGES FILE PHOTO
A member of jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo. Calgary's Damian Clairmont, who has been killed in Syria, allegedly joined the Jabhat al-Nusra.
By: Michelle Shephard National Security Reporter, Published on Wed Jan 15 2014
The death of another Canadian fighter in Syria this week underscores just how complex the country’s battleground has become and the security challenges facing Western governments.
Afghan Girl 'Suicide Bomber' Refuses To Return To Family, Says She Was Forced To Wear Explosives
A 10-year-old girl trussed up in explosives and sent to blow-up a checkpoint has told Afghan police she will not return to her "abusive" family.
The young girl, named only as Spozhmai, told police she was scared when her brother hit her, and ordered her to wear the explosive-packed vest. He promised her that she would not die, but her targets would, she said.
The girl is in protective custody in Lashkar Gah, after an Afghan soldier spotted her acting suspiciously and saw she was wearing the vest.
Spozhmai, 10, who was about to be used by the Taliban as a suicide bomber, talks as she sits at a police office in Helmand province
Spozhmai said her father was aware of the plan from the start. "Of course my Dad knew, they were all in it together," she told the BBC's World Service Newsday programme. "It was my Dad first and then my brothers.
"After my brothers left me that night near the checkpoint. I slept in the desert until a guy from the checkpoint came.
Morning Star News' Top 10 Persecution Stories of 2013
In Nigeria, terrorists weren't the only ones terrorizing Christians.
By the Editor
January 10, 2014 (Morning Star News) – Last year Egypt saw its greatest level of attacks on Christians; more Christians were killed in Syria’s civil war than anywhere else; and an Islamist rebel take-over in the Central African Republic brought new atrocities to the historically unstable country. But where political instability and civil war were not contributing factors, the greatest targeting of Christians primarily for their faith took place in Nigeria (even if oppression overall was worse in North Korea and Saudi Arabia). The stories have become so repetitive that they risk becoming at once routine and unbearable; on the ground, however, Nigerian Christians refuse to give in to the trauma. Their faith shines, even in the face of new causes for fear in 2013: The line blurred between terrorist groups and attacking tribal herdsmen, and government soldiers stationed to protect Christians sometimes killed them.
'Efforts to reform terrorists failing': Two-thirds jailed for Islamist terror offences remain attached to extremist ideology
Efforts by Government officials to turn Islamist terrorists away from their extremist ideology are largely failing, it was claimed last night. Some 110 of the 150 convicted jihadists in Britain have refused to engage with a programme designed to stop them posing a threat to the public, Sky News reported. And it was claimed that the 40 convicts who have joined the Contest programme are footsoldiers rather than ringleaders. (File picture) Sign of defiance: Muslims demonstrate in Luton. Report finds two-thirds jailed for Islamist terror offences remain attached to extremist ideology (File picture) Sign of defiance: Muslims demonstrate in Luton. Report finds two-thirds jailed for
People stand among debris at the site of a bomb attack at a marketplace in Baghdad's Doura District December 25, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Ahmed Malik
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 34 people were killed in three bombings in Christian areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, including a car bomb that exploded as worshippers were leaving a Christmas service, Iraqi police and medics said.
Elsewhere in Iraq, at least 10 people were killed in three attacks that targeted police and Shi'ite pilgrims, police said.
Iraq is enduring its deadliest violence in years, reviving memories of the sectarian bloodshed between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims that killed tens of thousands in 2006-07.
Copts in the village of Tarshoub, Beni Suef, Upper Egypt, are experiencing intimidation after extremists attacked them on Monday. Aggressors threw stones at Coptic homes, burned a tuk-tuk truck owned by a Copt named Magdy Fathi Rizk and a store owned by Badr Maher.
They also destroyed the fronts of some houses and called for the closure of the church, which dates back more than 40 years in the village.
